andrewpham – Page 3 – A Deep Dive

My Favorite Vietnamese Restaurants in Little Saigon, CA

It may come as a surprise to hear me say that I don’t particularly like Vietnamese food, despite being Vietnamese. There are however, a few dishes, at a few places, that do make the cut. Little Saigon and surrounding area is home to the largest population of Viet people outside of Vietnam so I’d be willing to bet this list includes some of the best Viet food outside of Vietnam. I’ll start with everyone’s favorite dish:

Pho: Phở Vè Dầy Dòn with quail egg at Pho Quang Trung. I prefer the one on Westminster over the one on Bolsa. Something about the cuts of meat, they do it very right here. They’re usually out of quail egg unless you’re early.

Nuoc Mia: The Original Cococaine with kumquat at Cococaine. Right next to OK water, this store keeps true to it’s FOB heritage by being half fruit market, half juice store with amazing taste in EDM music. They’re usually out of kumquat… our community has some supply chain issues.

Bo Luc Lac (aka shaken beef): SALTADO at The Vox Kitchen. They do Viet modern fusion really well.

Lobster Noodles: Newport Special Lobster at Tan Cang Newport Seafood. A staple at weddings but if you have a family to feed I bet they’d love this.

Clams at Kim Su: I can pretty much finish a plate of these my own and I use the rice to soak up the sauce. As a kid this was my favorite food, my cousins and I would stack clam shells practically to the ceiling we ate so much.

Salmon with Hollandaise sauce at Song Long: You know why we make such good bread and sandwiches? Because we were colonized by the French. And we got this dish out of it too.

Spring Rolls at Brodard: Honestly I’m not the biggest fan of spring rolls but this restaurant is a staple for this iconic food so it gets a spot on the list as well. Don’t take it to go, it looks like something that can be packed for later but once it gets soggy the magic is gone.

Valentino Couture, The American Psycho’s Suit of Choice

If you haven’t seen the famous American Psycho credit card scene, here it is:

Don’t try to look up Dorsia NYC btw that restaurant is fictional. So back to Bateman’s suit, Valentino Couture. The Valentino brand is famous but do they even make suits? (Couture usually means something made to measure. If you’re into designer clothing over bespoke clothing many times you’ll have to settle for made to measure over fully bespoke.)

Valentino’s site doesn’t have a category for suits or fine menswear. They do make jackets listed under “outerwear”. A search from their website turns up one suit in three different colors, black, navy, and grey.

So they do make suits! But more importantly from here, do they make made to measure (couture) suits for Mr. Bateman over here?

A deep dive reveals an article from Vogue talking about Valentino’s menswear store expansion in 2016 making room for their new made-to-measure service. If the service was new in 2016 and the movie was made in 2000, Bateman probably had some special connections to have his suit made. Even cooler to think about is perhaps this made-to-measure service could have been inspired by Bateman himself.

The article also gives us a price of about €2,600 for a tuxedo which is a reasonable ask in my opinion considering the ready to wear suit I found above and many other casual items from Valentino already command that price.

It’s been five years since that Vogue article was written, does Valentino Couture still exist as a made to measure menswear service? A google search doesn’t turn up much besides that article. From what I can tell the store they are talking about is the Paris Rue St. Honore which is thee Valentino Menswear store. A picture from May 2015 clearly shows us that it’s a menswear store:

And it seems like that store is still there despite not having a dedicated website or anything like that. Although a picture from 2020 shows us that the interior isn’t like that anymore.

And the 2015 picture was from before their second floor expansion so we’re seeing the same floor of the same store here. It could very well be that while the store location exists, Valentino Couture made-to-measure men’s suits are no longer a thing.

On the off chance that they are still in existence the only way to get a Valentino Couture suit would be to fly to Paris and find this specific Valentino store that makes no mention of its services officially online. I’ll check it out next time I’m in Paris.

Taco Maria, America’s Michelin Starred Taco Restaurant

Tucked away in Orange County California is America’s only Michelin starred taco restaurant. Now that claim is solely based on the Michelin guide’s online results for the word taco but it makes for a good title.

Service

Tacos Maria is small, upscale, and contemporary with attentive staff and unique flavors. We sat outside in lovely evening weather, the surrounding center was empty and quiet. They turned on the heater at our request later in the evening. My friends and I had to make a reservation two weeks in advance and we took the last time slot for the week at 8 pm on a Thursday. Their service was excellent serving silverware to the correct positions, never letting our drinks empty, and resetting chairs / napkins when a guest stepped away for the restroom. The food however did take a while to get to us after we ordered.

Menu

As I understand it the menu changes and this one was labeled Summer 2021, a mixture of the food they were serving before the pandemic and the take out they were serving during the pandemic. Between my friends and I we ordered everything on the menu. With a bit of sampling I can confidently say everything they serve tastes amazing. I ordered the molle de pato, the duck was cooked well and came right off the bone. The fig mole had a very strong flavor in my dish and perhaps they could have toned that down a bit. The arrachera was my favorite of my friends’ dishes and I’ll probably try that one next time.

Drinks

My favorite drink was the classic margarita made with agave wine instead of tequila and came with a rim of black salt. The agave wine made the flavor smoother than tequila and although I was a bit bummed at first, if they eventually get a liquor license I hope they keep the agave wine option. Something of note, the texture and taste of the salt stood out to me as well. I attempted to have them put that salt on more of my drinks but they couldn’t accommodate my request due to strict portioning.

Vegetable Accompaniments

The entrees could have been eaten alone but we all put them into the blue corn tortillas to create tacos. I’d say the charred avocado and the jalapenos are a must for the building the tacos. They also give you a dark “salsa” that reminds me of the chili oil found in Asian dishes.

Other Thoughts

Some people tell me that like good sushi ruined regular sushi for them. These tacos may as well have been their own genre of food. I’ve tasted no Mexican food like it.

Cost

Dinner came out to be about $120 a person for shared appetizers, shared vegetables, two drinks each, and one entrée each. We all agreed that it was worth it.

The Brooks Brothers Tuxedo, An Amazing Budget Option

A tuxedo is a pretty hard pill to swallow. Do I really want to invest a thousand dollars in an outfit that I’d wear about once a year? So I never had one despite black tie being my favorite look. Then Brooks Brothers ran a sale, a tux jacket and pants for $300, usually they retail together for $600. I imagined I’d get a tux made for some special occasion but this “budget” option could hold me over until then.

As a 5’8″ 140lb skinny Asian with a runner’s build I went with the Milano (slim) fit jacket in 36S and Regent (regular) fit pants in 30 (they didn’t have Milano fit). I have to say, this was the luckiest I’ve been with an off the rack suit. It fits me perfectly. Both the jacket and the pants run one size small, I’m usually a size 35 jacket and 29 pants. I was so excited as I slowly realized that I wouldn’t have to tailor any of it. The tux is beautiful and its construction is much better than I expected. The fabric comes from Vitale Barberis Canonico in Italy and I believe I saw on a tag that it was constructed in Egypt.

If Brooks Brothers runs this promotion again, I would highly recommend it, especially if you happen to have a coupon from them at the same time.

If you’re a bigger guy I found a tux at the Hugo Boss outlet around the same time as I bought this. It was much looser and would have required significant alteration to fit me. The Hugo read regular fit though honestly I would personally call it a relaxed fit or loose fit. However, it was only $180 for the set plus further discounts depending on how much your total was in store (spending over $300 gets you like a 15% additional discount or something like that).

There Are No Good Beginner Keytars Sub $1000

TL;DR:

Korg 100S2, Roland Ax-Edge: too expensive
Alexis Vortex, Roland AXIS, Roland Ax-7: no voices / midi only
Yamaha SHS-10: not instrument grade
Yamaha SHS-500: poorly designed
Yamaha SHS-200: too rare
Roland Lucina Ax-09: doesn’t look like a keytar
Yamaha SHS-300: Met the minimum for essential features but honestly just not good enough overall (my factors of consideration being looks, build, design, and voicing).

My most recent obsession has been keytar. I can play piano, I can play guitar. I can’t play piano well enough to be in an orchestra, I can’t play guitar well enough to be in a band, even in my dreams. So in an attempt to go jam with my friends and live out my dreams I figured I could master the keytar; how hard could playing with one hand be? Primarily I just want to quickly jam out to some synth solos I come across. I found that there are really no keytars that meet my requirements which I think are pretty basic requirements. In this article I’m going to overview what I perceive as the entire keytar market as found by a beginner consumer. If there are more keytars that aren’t on this list, they’re not easily found. If I’m missing any sub $1000 keytars let me know.

I figured that a beginner keytar should at least…

Work as an instrument stand alone. This mean’s I’m not going to include midi-only keytars. It should have its own voices ready to use. Beginners probably don’t have the software prepared to power a midi-only instrument. I actually do have some setup ready for that since I use a launchpad but I’d much rather “plug and play”. The Alexis Vortex falls into this category and so do the the cheaper Rolands like the AXIS and the Ax-7… and the Mad Catz Rock Band 3 keyboard.
Look like a keytar on stage so I’m not going to include basically strap mounted keyboards. The Roland Lucina Ax-09 fits into this category in my opinion, some of you may disagree but it’s my article and I want a keytar, not a keyboard with a strap.
Have at least something close to instrument grade build quality.

So here’s what I found that matched all my requirements:

1. The Roland Ax-Edge

Wow, this thing looks so cool. Did I mention it’s over a thousand dollars?

2. Korg RK100S2

This one is my favorite and the most instrument like of all the options mainly because it’s made of wood. If I had a thousand dollars burning a hole in my pocket, I’d get this one.

Now every other sub-$1000, non-midi-only, keytar basically comes from the same Yamaha lineup:

2. Yamaha SHS-300

This is probably the defining entry level keytar at the moment. It retails at a reasonable $200 and has a front facing speaker for casual jams alone or with softer instruments. However it doesn’t really look like a keytar, it’s small and would likely be out of place on stage. Second, it only has twelve voices: 3 synth, 3 piano, 3 other. This is currently my top contender and if they have it at my local guitar center I will likely pick one up. Though seriously my first keyboard from the 90s had 100 voices.

3. Yamaha SHS-500

This is the 300’s older bigger brother. It has 30 voices which I find much more acceptable and though it looks slightly bigger, I still don’t like the look. People honestly might not recognize it has a keytar on stage, more of a strap mounted keyboard though in Yamaha’s defense they don’t advertise these as keytars. Now the main problem with this keytar is well covered by keytar youtuber Pink. The instrument was made by retooling the VKB-100 Vocaliod from Japan. This means that the design of the instrument is not made for purpose. Buttons, knobs, and features are in weird places such as the speaker being on the back. To learn more about the shortcomings of this keytar’s design see youtuber Pink and the Keytar Cat.

4. Yamaha SHS-10

This may be the most famous keytar. It was released in the 80s and it’s the grandfather to the two SHSes above. The keytar is small but the shape is more recognizable as a keytar than its modern equivalents. I’d be getting this one if the build quality wasn’t awful. These currently resell for over $200 and most of them have broken battery covers and most importantly broken strap buttons. If the strap button breaks off well… you just have a keyboard.

5. Yamaha SHS-200

The SHS-10’s larger variant. I believe it’s more rare than the SHS-10 and in my opinion it looks so over the top that I like it. It has stage presence, works stand alone, and has a variety of sounds. I expect a perfect example of this to sell for around $300. However as of this writing there are only two available on eBay, neither of them are in fully functional condition and one of them is across the Pacific ocean in Japan.

[NS-PCY5BMA] Insignia – Bluetooth 4.0 USB Adapter Drivers

So you needed a quick Bluetooth adapter, went to BestBuy, and picked up an insignia adapter model NS-PCY5BMA? But now it’s not working despite its advertisement as “plug and play”? And the manual is no help at all? Then you went looking for a driver but the Insignia website has nothing? Then you find out that it uses Broadcom hardware and their website says all their drivers are part of windows updates but obviously it isn’t installed by default? Well you’re lucky you’ve found this obscure blog on the internet. Here’s how you download the driver:

Go to the Microsoft update catalog. Or attempt to use this direct download link and skip to step 4. The direct download link likely won’t work on Chrome, it also may just 404 over time.*
Search “Broadcom Corporation driver update for Micro size USB to Bluetooth Dongle”
Click the download button (I just used the top most recent result) and click on the download link from the pop up. If it’s not downloading it’s probably because Chrome recognizes the file as potentially malicious. If that’s the case then repeat these steps in another browser, I used Edge.
Extract the cabinet file you just downloaded. If you don’t see an extract button just enter the cabinet file with windows explorer by double clicking then drag/drop the files out of the window to a new folder.
Open your device manager, right click on “Bcm20702a0” and select update driver. Select “browse my computer for drivers” and select the folder with the extracted cabinet file.
The driver should download and you should see Bluetooth in your device manager.

This post is getting a lot of traffic so I’m going to move it to medium to increase its SEO and hopefully help more people. If you have helpful comments to solve this problem please post it there: https://medium.com/@andrewdpham3/ns-pcy5bma-insignia-bluetooth-4-0-usb-adapter-drivers-a516c4479572

* If neither of these options work, you can download it from my GitHub mirror here HOWEVER you really shouldn’t trust mirrors for this kind of thing, always download drivers from trusted websites, not mirror downloads put up by some random guy on the internet like me.

Amazing Tacos and the Western Space Launch Range

If you’re stationed at Vandenberg Space Force Base (and all space operators will start at Vandy Land for tech school) you probably live in Lompoc (pronounced lom-poke) or Santa Maria. While Lompoc is cheaper and a shorter drive to base, if you want things to do, I’d recommend Santa Maria. Lompoc’s saving grace however was its amazing Mexican food. It’s close enough to Vandy to stop for lunch as well. My favorite tacos are from Angela’s. They’re underrated compared to Floriano’s though I will concede Floriano’s green sauce is the best sauce. The best move is to stash a bunch of Floriano’s green sauce on an occasional run there and get Angela’s tacos the rest of the week… yeah I had tacos everyday. If you don’t want to go to two places, Angela’s makes a great spicy salsa for their chips that pairs well with the tacos. #justspaceforcethings

My Favorite Pants: Lululemon Commission Ventlights

I’ll be honest I didn’t really see the appeal in Lululemon at first. I happened to be shopping for some pants at the outlet and picked these up on sale. One thing I like about the brand is that they have smaller sizes for me and I imagine the only reason I got this on sale was because I can squeeze into a size 28.

These are absolutely the most versatile pants ever. I’ve been wearing them as travel pants, golf pants, and semi-formal dinner pants. They have vertical pockets for formality but they’re made of a techwear material called ventlight that makes them comfortable and breathable. The fabric is made in a grid pattern and you can see pin sized holes where the gridlines intersect. It’s almost exactly like the material on my Nike TeckPack pants but built into dress pants. Being a lover of techwear and formalwear, these are immediately became my new favorites and despite their $120 price tag, I set out to buy more.

(Quick side note, LLL support is really friendly and they showed me this dot inside of the pockets that have the size and product numbers in them. So if you ever need to identify LLL products look for the dot!)

After a bit of searching online and in stores it’s apparent that the pants are completely sold out, despite what I consider a heavy price (guess not). LLL has no idea about if or when restocks happen. So if you happen to find Ventlights in your size, I recommend picking them up.

Space Force Officer Reviews KA-BAR’s SPACE-BAR

In an attempt to create the world’s most durable letter and package opener, KA-BAR has released a USSF branded KA-BAR. Famously used by the Marines in WWII, the KA-BAR has since found itself in the hands of the Army, Navy, and even Coast Guard. Now-a-days it is typically engraved and given ceremoniously as a thank you or retirement gift. Though the knife isn’t necessarily standard issue today, the company still creates knives branded with KA-BAR on one side and either USMC, USA, or USN on the other (to my understanding they do not make a USAF KA-BAR). Now at long last the US Space Force gets their own branded KA-BAR to use in a pinch against aliens (this leaves the USAF as the last branch to not have a KA-BAR to my knowledge).

The knife was released in December of 2020 as the USSF SPACE-BAR Knife. It features a light blue handle with a grey powder coated blade. The heel of the knife reads USSF on one side and KA-BAR on the other in a retro NASA font. It retails for $111. On the side it comes with a plastic grey sheath and USSF KA-BAR line cover for the box.

In all seriousness, this was not a collaboration with the US Space Force and “US Space Force” is actually not mentioned anywhere on the product advertising, only USSF. The light blue is not at all similar to the “Space Blue” one sees on the uniforms and patches of Space Force members. None of these SPACE-BARs will be issued to Space Force members but rest assured one has found its way into my hands. It is going into a tabletop display on my desk at work. Hopefully some Marines from the neighboring building will get a good laugh out of it. I’d like to note here that the display costs more than the knife brining the total over $200 for a gag but it had to be done.

Both the knife and the case are exceptionally well made. If I had any need for a large knife honestly I would consider buying another one for use instead of collection. The rubberized grip and balance makes this knife very comfortable to hold, I could imagine myself using this… if I had any use for it. The display case features a magnet on the stand that secures the knife in place much better than if it were just a wedge or balancing act.

The KA-BAR USSF line also features an astro military police (karambit), corser folder (folding knife), and my personal favorite, the bridge breaching tool (basically a prybar with extras).

I love this knife. It’s a well made knife and a hilarious nod to our newest military branch. My only critique, they should have used Space Blue instead of this light almost tiffany blue for the handle.

Serious Q&A:

What use is this knife to the Space Force?

I will open letters with them in the rare cases where I get physical packages.

Does anyone in the Space Force actually have use for such a knife?

The electronic warfare guys deploy and could have use for a big knife while opening boxes or something. Honestly about as much use as anyone else has for a knife these days, though who wants to carry around a large heavy knife?

Will astronauts carry this knife?

As of writing, the Space Force has two astronauts. However, I don’t think carrying one of these in space would be a very good idea, the knife is heavy and pointy, not good for space suits.

If you want to know more about the Space Force check out my Space Force FAQ. If you have any questions, leave them in the comments!